Construction in progress

My new place. TOP is supposed to be end of this year but look how "fast" it's coming up...

Only 7 out of 17 floors.

Looks like my goal to have X'mas here is too ambitious!

Mt Fuji & Hakone

Day 7: Mt Fuji & Kawaguchi-ko

Getting to Lake Kawaguchi was no easy feat. From Osaka, we had to transfer trains twice to get to Kawaguchi-ko station and then another hour by bus to our hotel. The journey took 6.5 hours, and by the time we got to the hotel, it was already late afternoon. Here's the beautiful view that greeted us from our hotel, Konansou.

Service was personalized in this hotel. We had an obahsan taking care of our every needs. She brewed green tea for us when we arrived, showed us where the yukatas (Japanese robes) and futons were kept, got our dinner ready in a private room and even gave us a call to remind us about dinner. As I was the one who made the hotel booking, my last name was neatly transcripted onto this reservation slip.
We decided not to venture too far from our hotel as we didn't have much time before dinner. All voted in favour of the Mt. Kachi Kachi ropeway which will bring us to the top of a hill for a view of Mt. Fuji, if we were lucky enough. We did catch a glimpse of the elusive Mt. Fuji but the photo's nothing to brag about.
Bird's eye view of Lake Kawaguchi.
At the top of the hill, there was a heart-shaped metal structure with a bell in the middle. We weren't quite sure of the story behind this but all couples were already busy posing for photos...so who cares? I suppose it's a sort of good-luck love charm - if you take a photo here, you will be bestowed with eternal love and happiness. That's my version :)
Posing with the Kachi-kachi friends.
View of Lake Kawaguchi. The swan boats are available for rental to paddle around Lake Kawaguchi. As it was getting dark and cold, we gave this a pass.

Evening view of Lake Kawaguchi.
Dinner time! Us gals all dressed up in yukata. Don't we look the part of sweet, demure Japanese schoolgirls?
Can't say the same for the guys though...the one on the left looks gangster-ish, the one on the right seems to be picking at his food, and the one in the middle just escaped from Disneyland (check out his Mickey mouse ears)!
This was the kaiseki dinner we had. From top left clockwise: steaming udon in crab soup, grilled steak with mushroom and asparagus, curried pork, assorted sashimi, a tiny marinated sardine, tofu and an appetiser dish (made up of a tiny perfectly-shaped octopus, raw fish and Japanese escargot?). Verdict? Only the udon, steak and sashimi were palatable. The curried pork, according to my friends, tasted like dog food. And the rest just tasted weird.
Day 8: Picturesque Hakone

We had breakfast at Konansou the next morning. Breakfast was similar to dinner, we were given a tray filled with an assortment of small and "interesting" dishes. Sadly, the food looked better than it tasted and we were disappointed. What really turned us off was a small cockroach running around in our dining room! We hurriedly finished the edible stuff and got ready to set off for Hakone.

Like Mt. Fuji, Hakone wasn't easy to get to. We had to take a bus from Kawaguchi-ko station to Gotemba station, and then another bus to get to Lodge Fujimien, our hotel in Hakone. The view from our room really wowed us, enough for us to momentarily forget the stale/stinky smell in our room. But I thought the hotel was decent.

Our initial plan was to go to Yunnesun, a hot spring theme park in Hakone. But the owner of Lodge Fujimien, Mrs. R Abe (who spoke impeccable English, by the way) dissuaded us from going. So we ended up whiling our time away grabbing lunch at Togendai (near Lake Ashi), strolling around and soaking in the fresh air and beautiful scenery.

My G9 was on auto mode but it just couldn't capture all of us in the air together. Mr Lee was undoubtedly the best jumper in our group! The worst 2 were Ms Vong, who was too hungry to jump and Tyre, who was supposed to count down to each jump but not a single photo captured him in the air. Definitely not a multi-tasker, this boy.I love these shots of us standing around in a staggered fashion - gives the photo depth!
This is the 2nd series of the "wedding" style photos. The grass was so green and inviting! Here's Ms To and tyre in the "we're-more-than-just friends" pose.
The Vongs in the "we're-so-kawaii" pose.
And Mr Lee and I in the "we-have-long-legs" pose.
One of the very rare group photos that we have. We shared a private joke about bedroom habits here (Hahaha).
After lunch, someone (I can't remember who) suggested going to Lawson (chain convenience store in Japan) which we glimpsed from the bus on the way to our hotel. We decided to try walking there as we desperately wanted to load up on beer (to avoid a sleepless night) and snacks (we weren't expecting to get filled up by our 2nd kaiseki dinner, obviously).
The 6 of us walked from Togendai in search of Lawson. We walked...and walked...and walked...but Lawson was no where to be seen. By this time, we had walked for about an hour I reckon and a few members of our troop had started to show signs of fatigue and wanted to drop out of the search. Mr Lee and I decided to persist, despite the threatening dark clouds weighing heavy on us.
YES! We found Lawson 20 minutes after our friends deserted us! I insisted on taking a picture of it to remind ourselves that we made it there! Boy were we exhausted!
2nd kaiseki dinner @ Lodge Fujimien. Again, we didn't enjoy the dinner too much. The plum wine was darn good though!
And of course, the instant noodles, snacks and beer came in useful!

Kyoto & Osaka

After a 3-hour train ride, we set foot in Kyoto station, hip hip hooray! The magnificent Kyoto tower beckoned to us as we exited from the train station. I must say that the train ride was one of the most enjoyable I have taken. Japanese long distance trains are clean, spacious and best of all, you can have your dinner comfortably in the train as every seat comes equipped with a tray in front, like in an airplane.
We made our way to Kyoto White Hotel, which was a short 10 minutes walk from Kyoto station. I had forewarned my friends earlier not to expect too much of this hotel, as it was the cheapest hotel which came with an attached bath that Ms To and I could find. We knew that the hotel wasn't going to be great before we even got to it as it was located in a small dark alley which we almost missed. Here's what greeted us at the entrance....we had to leave our shoes there and wear the red bedroom slippers provided. Very homely indeed!
As soon as we dumped our stuff in the room (which was clean but not inviting enough for us to stay longer), we headed out into the chilly Kyoto night in search of....you got it right....SUPPER!
At a local ramen shop. When we got in, we tried to shift the tables but got a loud tut-tut from the owner. What's worse was when he commanded Ms To and I to move to another table which faced the wall. We suspected he did that because there were 6 of us but we ordered only 3 bowls of ramen.
Day 5: Temple hopping

Fresh new morning: Again, Kyoto tower greeted us as we stepped out of our hotel (or should I say guesthouse). I had a really bad night sleeping on the futon - not comfortable at all plus a certain red dot of light above me was very disturbing.
After a simple but delicious breakfast at Kyoto station, we were ready to set off to our first destination - Kinkakuji or golden pavilion, by bus! Taking buses in Kyoto was a relatively simple process. Just get a 1 or 2 day bus pass which will give you unlimited rides in Kyoto and it comes with a comprehensive bus guide!

Pretty pavilion. If I had taken this photo from another angle, I think I could have captured its reflection. Oh well!
A vending machine that dispenses oracles. As a true supporter of "all-things-inane-but-fascinating", Mr Lee paid some money to get his very own oracle. If you get a bad oracle, you are supposed to tie it into a knot at a designated place. Luckily for Lee, his was a "Very Good" fortune!
We had lunch at a pretty cafe serving hamburgers and pastas. Everything we ordered - spicy cod roe pasta, hamburger with brown sauce, etc was good! Next, we went to the Kiyomizudera temple (water temple), set atop a hill. The walk up was arduous but there were lots of shops selling food, candies and other niceties to distract us.
At the entrance of the water temple. We had difficulty taking a decent photo as there were many visitors and tour groups.
The pavilion below, I think, is the water temple. We didn't manage to get to it as it was quite a long walk from the entrance and we were all so tired from walking....

Such pretty nooks and crannies are aplenty in Kyoto. Here, we tried to take some "wedding" style photos. Ms To and Tyre doing the "I'm-coy-and-you're-macho" thing.
Mr Lee and I doing the "we're-in-our-rosy-little-world" pose. I kept sifting through my photos to find a decent shot of the Vongs but ended up laughing so much 'cuz the poses were very unnatural...haha.
This is something that we are very fond of doing wherever we go. Taking our own reflection in the mirror.
Day 6: Himeji castle and Shinsaibashi shopping in Osaka

All too quickly, we had to leave Kyoto. I wish we had more time in Kyoto as I love the place for its serenity and quaintness. The next time I go, I'll be sure not to stinge on hotels - I'll go all out and stay at the Granvia Kyoto!

Our next destination was to Himeji castle. On our way there, I spotted this cute retro bus! This made me happy :)
Every photo you take in Himeji is postcard material - it's that scenic.

Himeji castle in its finest glory.

Cute little ice-cream parlor. On our way back to the train station, we passed a 100-yen shop and though we were running late, we refused to pass the shop up. So in we went, shopped frantically and had to run all the way to the train station to catch the train to Osaka (truth be told, we did a lot of running on this trip chasing trains). Thank goodness we made it.
By the time we checked into Comfort Inn @ Osaka, it was already getting late. We went our separate ways to do some last minute shopping and reconvened at Shinsaibashi to have our dinner!
Dinner degustation menu

Crabs in various styles - sashimi, cold and grilled. All tasted divine!

Takoyaki. We asked the guy what's in the ball and he did a really comical "octopus" action. Apparently, the taco-pachi we find in Singapore are variations of the real thing as "taco" means octopus.

Ramen in tonkotsu soup. Delicious with a sprinkling of chopped garlic!


Day 7: Universal Studios

Coincidentally, the Halloween theme was on at Universal Studios. The good people at Disneyland ran the same theme when I was in the US 2 years ago!
The Halloween float parade!

The cool couple with their vintage cars.

I could never understand why people are so fascinated with the carousel. I used to like it as a kid, but I grew out of it as I got older. So it caught me by surprise when all my friends wanted to go on it. Choosing the "animal" to ride on was fun though. There was this sweet little girl riding alone on a unicorn next to me. We were amazed that her parents let her ride alone as she can't be older than 2 years!